Borderlands 2: The Little Things
by michiev
Summary: It's been five months since the fall of the warrior, What is everyone doing?
1. You Remind Me of My Daughter

It's been five months since the Vault Hunters defeated The Warrior, they were going to kill Jack, that's what they had set out to do... But as he was laying there on the ground with lava occasionally shooting up around into the air and back down, Maya and Axton decided with a meaningful look that they would spare him... a decision that didn't go over well with the others..

"I don't understand" Gaige spoke quietly while doodling on her robotic arm, She, Lilith and Tina were spending a lot of their time in the Crimson Raider's HQ in Sanctuary "Don't understand what?" Lilith said, absentmindedly chipping her nail polish off, Gaige jumped off the table and pulled her hair out of it's pigtails "Why didn't they just kill him?"

Lilith knew she was talking about Jack, She thought it over again and again since it happened but she couldn't make sense of the decicion those two made, it made being around them really tense.. "Because" Tina spoke up "They wanted to shove explosives up his bu-" Lilith threw something at her "No, Tina, We've talked about this.. Explosives don't go there!"

"It just doesn't make sense! The entire reason we even started doing this was to get rid of Jack and now we're like.. sparing him? I would have socked him in the face with my gun! I would have let deathtrap rip him to shreds.. I would have" Lilith sighed "Look, Gaige. It's been a while since this has happened, I really just want to forget all of it, Go talk to Maya if you want to know why she decided to spare that evil jackass."

Gaige knew that she had been shut down and that this conversation was over, She decided she would go find Maya, Maya was located at one of the vault hunter safehouses, Which was where they had been keeping Jack for the past five months... When Gaige arrived there she knocked on the door and was greeted with Axton's grim face "Come on in, We're having issues with Jack" Gaige crossed the threasehold and entered the room, She had never been in here before, It was a grim looking place with one window shining light through, the walls were plated in metal and had defaced Hyperion posters everywhere... In the center of the room, was Jack.

He was tied to the metal pole that was protruding from the ground and exiting through the ceiling, It looked as if he had been through physical torture.. His head was hanging low on his chest and his eyes were closed "Gaige, can you watch him while Axton and I head out to talk to Marcus?" Gaige twisted her neck around to see them as they were leaving "Why are you going to see Marcus?" Axton opened the door and Maya walked through it "We're gonna ask him about a lead we have on one of our cases. The other vaults.. We'll be back, Just keep an eye on Jack"

He left, shutting the door behind him - while doing this, the door slamming shut reverberated through the entire tiny building "They aren't going to find anything." Jack spoke, startling Gaige so much that she jumped off her chair, Then straightened up "What are you talking about?" She asked, staying right where she was, She knew he was restrained quite expertly, but the dude scared the crap out of her "I mean when I was doing my ..." He coughed and blood sputtered out of his mouth "When.. I was doing my research.. I found out the vault keys aren't the same" He coughed some more, Gaige decided to get a little closer and sit in the chair that was right in front of him "But, from what I understand... you stole the key from Tannis, She had the key for the first vault. Why would it be any different?"

Jack opened his eyes to look at her with what appeared to be great difficulty "There is one key that opens... two of the vaults, but these vaults are located on Pandora... The others.. the thousands of others are elsewhere... And we knew.. I ... I knew about the ones on Pandora first, that's why I came here." Another session of loud raucous coughing, producing some blood splatters onto the floor.

"Why are you telling me all this? Those dudes have been torturing you for months and you didn't tell them shit." She crossed her arms "I don't get it." He coughed again "You remind me of Angel.. Er, Angel is my Daughter" his eyes widen "Was." he adds on sadly, as if he just realized she was gone... Gaige cocked her head and raised her eyebrow "You mean the girl you had locked up and force-fed some weird substance for almost her entire life? That's not a compliment dude"

Jack let out a small chuckle, it caused him great pain, because for the next minute or so he was coughing up more blood "I mean how could you do that to someone?" Gaige asked, her fists clenched in anger "How could you do that to your own daughter?! You ruined her life! I had to run away from my planet and come here because I became a criminal, I lived a lot of my time on the run, It was terrifying.. But I would rather go through that a thousand more times than ever go through what you put your daughter through." She stared at the floor, Her eyes starting to water in anger

"I don't understand why they didn't just kill you when they killed The Vault Monster..." She spoke again after making sure she wasn't going to burst into tears of anger and frustration "I don't know" Jack sad, he coughed again "I.. have nothing left..." His head drooped onto his shoulder "I have no money, no company, no Angel... no wife.. Everything is gone."

"Wife?" Gaige said, surprised "You had a wife?"  
"How the hell did you think I had a kid if you didn't know I had a wife?"  
Gaige's eyes widened and she suddenly felt the need to slap herself on the forehead and mumble "idiot" she didn't, though  
"I just.. it surprised me a little.. I don't really see you as a family man."  
"I wasn't."  
"What were you then?"  
"A terrible husband and an even worse father.." He coughed again "Fuck, that Siren really screwed me up."  
"Maya or Lilith?"  
"Both of them, Sirens ... really pack a punch."  
a long silence followed as gaige screwed with her arm and Jack stood there, almost a part of the decoration in this metal shack... Gaige looked around at all the papers on the floor, the chipped parts of the walls, the scuff marks on the floor.. Five months of torture.. She looked back at Jack

"You know you're the reason why she's dead, don't you?" She asked bluntly "Maya and the others only did what she wanted.. I wasn't there.. But they told me what happened, they told me what you did to her.." She frowned "Your own daughter... Have you no remorse? She needed a father and all she ever had was a tyrant..." Jack looked up at her, his different colored eyes seemingly bore right into her skull, There was a silence for a while, after what seemed like forever he finally said two words nobody ever thought he would say "I know."

Gaige stopped in her tracks "What?" she said, surprised and hoping that it didn't leak through in her speaking "Yeah, I've had a lot of time to think.. Commando and Siren sort of beat it into me, I know what I did, and... I can't take that back, I can't change that.. I deserve to die for what I've done, I know that." He looks back down at the ground... "But... can't you just.. help us? You seem to know more about the vaults than even Tannis does... We're kind of having problems finding any information on the other vaults or where they might even be.. We could.. use you." Jack laughed, sort of "Yeah, I'm sure your little friends would be...deliiiighted at the idea."

"Look, you can't take back or change what you did to all those people, all the people you killed and tormented, all the damage you've done to Pandora, But you can help us.. You can maybe find some sort of redemption in that... I'll talk to the others." She hopped towards the door "Wait, Mechromancer." he said, gaige turned around "Yeah?"

"I'll help you find the vaults, but afterwards.. You have to promise that you will end this for me... kill me." He coughed and closed his eyes "I... I sort of understand why you would want that.. but.. why me?" Jack lifted his head up and smiled a little, it was the smile of a broken and sad man "You remind me of my daughter"


	2. They Won't Let It Happen

Gaige had a lot of time to think about what Jack proposed to her, She had no idea how she was going to bring it up to the others because she knew damn well that they were not going to be as... welcoming of the idea as she is considering to be. But nevertheless she pushed open the door to the hangout and saw that Axton and Maya had come back there after their conversation with Marcus, Maya was going through papers she had obtained from Marcus and Axton was talking with Salvador while Tina was missing from the room, Lilith was standing out on the balcony overlooking the small part of sanctuary that you can see from there.

Gaige cleared her throat slightly, Nobody noticed. She cleared her throat again, nobody turned or anything.. She rolled her eyes and just blurted it out "When I was at the beat up shack, Jack said he'd help us." Everyone in the room shut up and turned to pay attention to her, She probably should have thought this out before speaking, she shook herself to bring her brain back to reality.. Lilith overheard and came into the room with the rest of them "No way." she said, rather forcefully, Maya turned towards her "Now, let her talk.. What did Jack say?"

Gaige fumbled with her words, she was so much better with tech and guns that she didn't know how to piece together sentences the right way, everyone was staring at her and she could already feel the heated glare coming from Lilith even though she was staring at the floor "I was there with him when he said he'd help us" She convienitly left out the part where it was her that suggested him helping in the first place

"No, no way, I don't buy it. We're not having anything to do with that psychopathic murderer" Lilith said, in a sort of final tone which meant she wasn't going to have any more of the convesation, Unfortunantely for Lilith, the conversation wasn't over.. Axton spoke next "Why would he say that? Why would he offer us his help after everything he did?" Gaige shrugged "I don't know.. He seems to feel bad"

Lilith laughed "You all seem to be forgetting that he killed Roland and kidnapped me to charge his damn vault key, not to mention what he did to Angel!" Maya crossed her arms "Gaige, when Axton and I left you alone with him we didn't expect you to talk to him, He's just trying to screw with your head.. He did it to me too, when I was in the Core... He tried to make me think that I was hurting Angel.. That is what he does. I know you want to get involved with this, but.. this isn't a good idea." Gaige pushed her headband up to get the hair off her forehead "I know he's a bad guy, guys.. But.. maybe he's really honestly feeling remorseful.. shouldn't he have a chance to redeem himself?"

"No!" Lilith screamed "No he should not, He is a disgusting killer! He murdered innocent people, burned New Haven to the ground.. he shot down resistance members" Gaige interrupted "How is what Jack did any different from some of the stuff WE'VE done!?" She shouted... Axton interjected "I don't think it's fair to compare us to Jack... What he did was disgusting and dispicable." Gaige shot him a look "Oh don't pretend you don't enjoy killing as much as Jack did, The only difference is that you guys were never rich and didn't have a company backing you!" She knew she should probably calm herself down but the accusations were flying now.. Lilith looked absolutely pissed "We are not ever going to accept help from a man who murdered thousands of innocent people, who DESTROYED the lives of everyone he crossed. No way, this conversation is over."

"But guys.. He knows more about the vaults and eridium than even Tannis does! You can't just deny that, We NEED that information!" Gaige said, clenching her fists in anger "NO! It's not happening!" Lilith said, she stormed downstairs and out the door in a fit of anger, Maya and Axton turned toward Gaige "We're not accepting his help, don't bring it up again" Maya said "And don't talk to Jack. He's a bad man looking for someone to guilt trip" Gaige was going to fight it, she was going to respond in a yelling screaming fit, But instead she just left.. They were right though, Jack was a bad person.. He was obviously trying to guilt her "You remind me of my daughter" He had said, but he hooked his daughter into eridium pumps to help charge a key that would make him rich and powerful... But, she recalled.. There was something in his voice.. something in his eyes that told her that maybe.. Just maybe, there was a shred of humanity within him... And she knew she needed to explore that.


End file.
